100 years of Harwood: Home to legends and lore, Taos museum celebrates its centennial anniversary

When Georgia O’Keeffe had a nasty fight with salon maven Mabel Dodge Luhan, she fled to the Harwood.

When Taos Society of Artists member Victor Higgins failed to sell a painting, he hung it above the fireplace at the Harwood.

Home to legends and lore, the Harwood Museum of Art is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Wealthy Midwesterners Burt and Lucy Harwood bought the Taos property that became their namesake in 1916. After spending 20 years in Paris before the outbreak of World War I, they longed to re-create the salons and galleries they had enjoyed in France.

“They had this idea that it would be the salon of the Southwest,” said Nicole Dial-Kay, Harwood curator. “There were artist spaces, there were community spaces.”

The museum that has housed works by the Taos Society of Artists, Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Martin and more celebrates its 100th anniversary with an expansive exhibition through Jan. 28.

The building was the site of Taos’ first library and art gallery, including a permanent art collection from donors such as Dodge Luhan. The Taos Society of Artists also ignited its holdings, giving multiple works to the Harwood. The building also featured artist apartments.

Established in 1915, the TSA was essentially a commercial cooperative. Its foundation contributed to the development of the tiny Taos Art colony into an international art center.

Organizers established the Harwood Foundation in 1923. The building hosted the first exhibition of Taos artists in 1924.

100 years of Harwood: Home to legends and lore, Taos museum celebrates its centennial anniversary

The first show with an archived artist list took place in 1926 and included such A-list TSA names as: Kenneth Adams, Oscar Edmund Berninghaus, Ernest Leonard Blumenschein, Eanger Irving Couse, Catharine Critcher, William Herbert “Buck” Dunton, Victor Higgins, Ernest Martin Hennings, Bert Geer Phillips, Joseph Henry Sharp and Walter Ufer. The art committee curating exhibitions at that time included Blumenschein, Couse, Critcher, Dunton and Ufer.

“They were this incredible promotion machine,” Dial-Kay said.

The museum’s 6,500-object collection follows a timeline dating from the santeros to the TSA to the Taos moderns to contemporary artists. The centennial exhibition showcases 200 works of art and 200 books.

Higgins’ masterpiece “Winter Funeral” (1931) still hangs above the fireplace.

“He won a really big jury prize and was so excited and sure that this was going to be his big break,” Dial-Kay said. “But it didn’t sell. The story goes that he came into the Harwood and said, ‘Put this over the fireplace.’ ”

Blumenschein’s “Deserted Mining Camp,” (1940) with its muscular waves of rocks, is one of the museum’s most important pieces, Dial-Kay said.

“He’s painting the landscape, and he’s painting labor and commerce,” she added.

Dodge Luhan donated much of the museum’s devotional art, including master santero José Rafael Aragón’s “Nuestra Señora del Refugio de los Pecadores” (c. 1840).

Aragón was known for his highly decorative designs framing his pieces.

When Burt Harwood died in 1923, Lucy opened her living room to artists. The Harwood Foundation was established the same year, dedicating the space to a library, a commercial space and an art gallery. In 1935, cash-strapped Lucy Harwood gave the museum to the University of New Mexico.

Artists still flocked to the space. In the 1940s, printmaker Gene Kloss and artist Rebecca James curated exhibitions.

“They’re working as director; they’re acting as janitor,” Dial-Kay said. “Gene said everyone in Taos could exhibit once a year for $5. Victor Higgins complained that amateurs were exhibiting.”

The Museum of New Mexico Press has designed and published an illustrated publication titled “Harwood Centennial: 100 Works for 100 Years,” highlighting key works from the collection. Written by Dial-Kay and Emily Santhanam, the publication’s essays emphasize the voices of artists, curators, directors and others who played a key role in the formation of the Harwood.